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THE DECREASING POPULATION OF FRANCE 


By Proressor JAMES W. GARNER 


THH UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


I. THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE POPULATION 


O* E of the leading newspapers of France, in an editorial in Feb- 
ruary, 1912, declared that the day on which the results of the 
next quinquennial census were known would be one of national mourn- 
ing for the people of France. The Parisian journals in commenting 
on the census returns when they were made public in May, 1912, char- 
acterized the conditions which they revealed by such terms as “ de- 
plorable,” “ profoundly desolating,” “‘ extremely disquieting,” “ lament- 


able” and “dolorous.” The prevailing tone of their comments was as 


if the country had experienced some great calamity or had suffered a 
national bereavement. So profoundly impressed was the government 


_ that it proceeded at once to appoint an extra-parliamentary commission 


(the second since 1902), to “investigate the question of depopulation, 
and to recommend measures for combatting the evils which threaten 
the extinction of the nation.” M. Klotz, minister of finance, in his ad- 
dress to the commission, urged upon it the necessity of prosecuting its 
investigations with celerity, for, he said, “depopulation is no longer a 


\vague menace to our country; it is a national danger, at once pressing 


__and immediate, and one which demands rapid and efficient measures.” 


M. Léon Bourgeois, addressing the Congress for Social Hygiene about 
the same time, spoke in a similar tone, declaring that France was threat- 


- ened with two dangers, one foreign and one domestic. While she was 


prepared to make any sacrifice, he said, for the cause of national de- 
fense, she must also consider seriously the danger with which the coun- 
try is confronted by the decline of the birth-rate and the comparatively 
high rate of mortality among the French people. Speaking before the 
same congress, Senator Ribot, a former premier, declared that “our 
people must be instructed in the perils that menace us; it will require 
all the resources and strength of the government to combat success- 
fully the dangers which now imperil the very existence of the French 
people.” No one can read the comments of the statistical experts, 


sociologists, economists and publicists on the census returns of 1911 


without feeling that the nation is really alarmed at the seriousness of 


the danger with which it is confronted. ‘The census revealed the fact 


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that in 64 of the 87 departments into which France is divided the pop- 
ulation had decreased during the past five years and that the number 


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248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 


of births during the preceding year in the nation at large was inferior 
by 34,869 to the number of deaths. True, the total population of the 
republic increased during the quinquennial period (1906-11), but this 
increase represented almost entirely the growth of Paris and a few other 
large cities, itself a result of foreign immigration, which now averages 
over 120,000 persons a year. Only 23 departments (the number was 55 
in 1910) showed any increase at all, and except in those departments 
containing large cities, the increase was trifling. The departments of 
Upper Loire, Lot and Yonne each lost about 11,000 inhabitants, Allier 
and Manche, over 11,000, Somme, 12,400, Niévre, 14,600 and Ardéche 
over 15,000. 

The disquieting feature of the situation is that while the popula- 
tion of France has long been practically stationary and is now begin- 
ning to decline, that of her neighbors continues to increase by leaps and , 
bounds. While the French population since 1872 has increased only © 
from 36,102,000 to 39,601,000, or only about three and a half millions, 
that of Germany has increased from 40,000,000 to 65,000,000, or a gain 
of 15,000,000 souls, and this in spite of the several millions that Ger- 
many has lost by emigration to foreign lands. During this period the 
population of the United Kingdom has increased from 31,840,000 to 
more than 45,000,000; Austria-Hungary from 35,700,000 to more than 
49,000,000, and Russia from about 80,000,000 to 155,000,000 (1908), 
and all this notwithstanding the heavy loss which these countries have) __ 
sustained through emigration to foreign countries and to their colonies. 

M. Bertillon, speaking before the Society of Friends of the Univer- 
sity of Paris, in 1912, called attention to the fact that in 1815 the 
French constituted 18 per cent. of the civilized people of the world ; now 
they constitute only 10 per cent. Against 50,000,000 people who speak 
French, there are to-day, he says, 120,000,000 who speak German and 
150,000,000 who speak English. In 1789 France stood first among the.+— 
powers of Europe in respect to population; to-day she stands sixth and 
is followed closely by Italy. M. Bertillon pointed out the economic and | 
other consequences to the nation that must result from this loss of pop- 
ulation. French exports have almost ceased to increase for lack of 
producers and manufacturers, while those of Germany have nearly 
doubled during the last thirty years. In case of war Germany now has (_~ 
fifty per cent. more conscripts than France to put into the field 
whereas forty years ago the two countries were in this respect on a 
footing of practical equality. France has no men available to send to 
her colonies and few to spread French influence abroad. M. Bertillon 
calls attention to the fact that technical and scientific works whose 
readers are necessarily limited in numbers but which nevertheless are 
the essential marks of progress will be published in the language 
spoken by the largest number of people. For Europe this language was 
once French, but it has ceased to be such. During the past century, while 


DECREASING POPULATION OF FRANCE 249 


the birth-rate of all the other countries of Europe greatly increased, that 
of France steadily declined. In 1801, the number of births in France 
was 1,007,000, by 1836 the number had fallen to 927,000, in 1876, ° 
it was 847,000; in 1896, 807,000; in 1901, 857,114 and in 1911, 
742,114. In 1897 the number of births exceeded the number of deaths 
by 108,000; in 1902 the excess was 83,000; in 1906 it was only 26,000 
and in 1911 there was, as I have said, a deficit of 34,869, an amount 
equal to the loss of a city the size of Lunéville, Verdun or Bar-le-Duce. 

While the natural increase in the population of France has for many 
years been a negligible quantity, the average annual excess of legitimate 
births over deaths in Germany is at present in the neighborhood of 
750,000 (last year it was 900,000); in Austria-Hungary more than 
600,000; in the United Kingdom nearly 500,000 and in Italy more 
than 300,000. The fact that Germany in particular is adding by natural 
increase nearly a million souls to her human resources every year, while 
France is not only adding nothing to hers, but, on the contrary, is 
losing a portion of what she has, is not only a source of disquietude, but 
of genuine alarm. In a sense Von Moltke did not exaggerate when he 
said Germany is gaining every year a battle over France by reason of 
the addition to her population of nearly a million souls. Nor did M. 
deFoville, of the Institute, when he declared that France is losing every 
fifteen years four army corps. 

The recent census statistics show a declining birth-rate in all the 
departments without exception. In many of them the rate of mortality 
exceeds the birth-rate by a third, while in some it is twice as great. 


From 1810 to 1911, the birth-rate for France, as a whole, decreased int 


from 31.8 per thousand to 19.6, while in some departments, like Ga- 
ronne, it is only 13.6; in certain parts of Normandy and Gascony it is 
as low as 10.9 and even 8. According to statistics published by the 
city of Paris in April of last year there was an average of but one birth 
in the capital for every thirty families during the past year. 

Parallel with the decreasing birth-rate has gone a steady diminu- 
tion in the size of French families. In 1800 each household had an 
average of 4.24 children; in 1860 it had fallen to 3.16, now it is 
slightly more than two and among many categories of persons like the 
wealthy of Paris, poorly paid state employés and small landed pro- 
prietors in certain provinces it is still smaller, in some cases being as 
low as 1.5. 

According to official statistics published in 1908 by the ministry of 
labor, there were 1,804,710 families in France that had no children; 
2,966,171 that had only one child; 2,661,978 that had two; 1,643,415, 
that had three, and only 987,392 that had four. Altogether there were 
only 2,238,780 families having four or more children, leaving 9,076,274 
families having from but one to three or none at all. 


250 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 


II. CAUSES 


A variety of causes, hygienic, social, economic and legal, have been 
offered in explanation of the conditions described above in respect to 
the state of the French population. First of all; an unnecessarily high 
rate of mortality among the French people is said to be partly respon- 
sible. For all France the number of deaths per 1,000 of population is 
in the neighborhood of 20, whereas in England, Holland, the Scandi- 
navian countries, Germany and Switzerland it is considerably lower, 
the rate being as low as 14 in Norway and 17 in Sweden. Infantile 
mortality is especially high in France, one third of all deaths occurring 
before the end of the third year. The ravages of tuberculosis among 
the French also contribute greatly to the elevation of the death rate. 
M. Bourgeois recently stated before the Congress of Social Hygiene that 
although the death-rate from tuberculosis had fallen in England and 
Germany from 11 per 10,000 of the population, the rate in France was 
22.5. The rate of mortality on account of this disease is especially 
high in Paris, where in 1908 there were 13,600 deaths therefrom. 

Alcoholism was declared by the Klotz commission to be partly re- 
sponsible for the high infantile mortality and to some extent also for 
the small birth-rate. The commission produced statistics to show 
that in those departments where there has been a large increase in the 
consumption of alcohol, there has been a corresponding increase in the 
rate of infantile mortality. Senator Ribot declares that alcoholism and 
tuberculosis are fast obliterating the French race and this opinion is 
supported by the testimony of a number of noted specialists in alcoholic 
diseases. Statistics show that there has been an enormous increase in 
the amount of alcohol consumed in France (the average per capita 
consumption is about fourteen litres per year and in certain cities of 
Normandy it is as high as twenty-nine) and they also show that a large 
percentage of the inmates of the hospitals and insane asylums are alco- 
holics. But as M. Bertillon has declared, while alcoholism is undoubt- 
edly exerting a terrible effect upon the quality of the young and is con- 
tributing to race degeneracy, it is not an immediate cause of sterility 
and does not necessarily affect the number of births. Moreover, there 
are other nations where the evil of alcoholism is equally great, for ex- 
ample, England, Germany and Belgium, and yet those countries have 
a relatively high birth-rate. 

The decline of religious faith and of traditional beliefs among the 
French is regarded by many persons, among whom may be mentioned 
the distinguished economist, Pau] Leroy-Beaulieu, as one of the con- 
tributory causes for the small birth-rate. The scriptural injunction to 
multiply and replenish the earth no longer has the moral influence upon 
the French mind which it once had. The obligation to rear families 
which has always been regarded as a religious duty naturally rests 


DECRBASING POPULATION OF FRANCE 251 


lightly upon a people who have all but repudiated religion. The ad- 
versaries of religion, however, place the responsibility for the low birth 
rate at the door of catholicism which has not only withdrawn from 
married life a large portion of the population both male and female, 
but does not encourage marriage among the laity. The latter charge 
the catholics emphatically deny, and as evidence that catholicism is not 
responsible they point to Brittany, Finistére and other strongly catho- 
lic provinces where the birth-rate is the highest in France. If the birth- 
rate for all France, says M. Leroy-Beauliewu had been since 1871 equal 
to that of Finistére, France would have to-day 53,000,000 inhabitants 
instead of only 39,000,000. Moreover, the catholics point out that in 
Quebec, a strongly French catholic province, the birth-rate is more 
than twice as high as that of France, and that Belgium with its compar- 
atively high birth-rate is a country where catholicism is strongly in- 
trenched. It is sometimes complained that one cause of the evil is to 
be found in the paucity of marriages, but the statistics show that there 
has been a steady increase in the number for many years (e. g., from 
269,332 in 1890 to 307,788 in 1911, and this notwithstanding the fact 
that there was little mcrease of population during this period), yet the 
birth-rate has declined. It seems clear that it.is not more marriages 
that France needs, but more productive marriages; it is infecundity 
that is responsible for the diminishing population and not lack of mari- 
tal unions. 

Some students of the question, like M. Henri Joly, see in the grant- 
ing of divorces, the number of which steadily increases every year, one 
of the secondary causes; but this may be doubted. On the contrary, it 
might be argued that divorce conduces to the increase of the birth-rate 
by permitting the dissolution of sterile unions and the contracting of 
others. Moreover, there was no divorce law in France before 1884, yet 
the population had long since ceased to increase except in trifling pro- 
portions. Finally, divorce is practised in other countries where the 
birth-rate is high; if it contributes to the diminution of the population 
in France, why does it not have the same effect elsewhere? The pro- 
hibition of the judicial determination of paternity in the case of illegi- 
mate children has long been regarded as a secondary cause of the low 
birth-rate, since it encourages illicit cohabitation in the place of law- 
ful marriages. This legal incentive to “free unions” has been removed, 
however, during the past year by the enactment of a law empowering 
the courts to ascertain and determine the father of an illegitimate 
child which he refuses to recognize. The enactment of this law, says 
the Temps, was a great victory in the interests of morals and humanity 
and one which required fifty years to achieve. 

The spirit of luxury and ease and the high state of wealth are also 
held responsible for the disinclination among the French to rear chil- 
dren. The census statistics show that in the richest regions of France, 


252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 


like Normandy, Burgundy and the Valley of the Garonne, the birth- 
rate is the lowest, while in the poorest provinces like Brittainy, the Nord 
and Lozére it is the highest. They show also that it is twice as high 
among the poor of Paris as among the rich and that it is fifty per cent. 
higher among fishermen and sailors than among landlords and the pro- 
fessional classes. But this is a phenomenon not peculiar to France; it 
is found in all countries where there is a high state of civilization and 
therefore does not explain why the birth-rate is lower in France than 
in other countries where similar conditions prevail. 

Our conclusion, therefore, is that the principal causes of the low 
birth-rate are not due to external conditions, social, legal or religious, 
but are the result of the general attitude of the French toward family 
life. The relatively high rate of mortality, inadequate hygienic condi- 
tions, alcoholism, divorce and the other causes mentioned may be con- 
tributory factors, but the chief reason is that the French people do not 
desire to have children. This attitude has been powerfully accentuated 
by the neo-Malthusian propagandists who by personal solicitation and 
the distribution of literature encourage the voluntary limitation of 
births and the practise of abortion, under the pretext of hygiene and 
the dissemination of philosophic and scientific doctrines. Limitation 
of the population is to them a legitimate means of combatting poverty 
and misery, a policy all the more justifiable, they argue, because of the 
high cost of living and the increasingly hard struggle for existence. 
Quality rather than quantity of population, they maintain, is the true 
test of civilization and national greatness. Moreover, the population 
of France is already as large as its resources can adequately support and 
therefore nothing is to be gained by producing a surplus to be forced 
by necessity to emigrate to America or to Madagascar and to the colon- 
ies of Africa. This very active propaganda is now being vigorously 
combatted as a national crime by men like Jules Lemaitre, Edmond 
Perrier, Senator Berenger and others, and a bill for its suppression is 
being considered by the senate with every likelihood of becoming a law 
at an early date. Statistics seem to leave no doubt that the propaganda 
in favor of race suicide is exerting a marked influence on the birth-rate 
in many parts of France. In Roubaix, for example, where it has been 
particularly active, the number of births decreased from 3,837 in 1897 
to 2,568 in 1906. Likewise in Turcoing the birth-rate has fallen 
from 34 per 1,000 inhabitants to 19 since the beginning of the 
propaganda in that city. This propaganda, says Dr. Lebec, is costing 
France an army corps every five years. Senator Paul Strauss in re- 
porting the conclusions of the extra-parliamentary commission on de- 
population recently referred to the “agonizing results” of the Malthu- 
sian crusade, and declared that statistics collected by Dr. Doleris 
showed that between 1898 and 1904 the number of cases of abortions 
treated in the maternity hospitals had tripled and that the number 


DECREASING POPULATION OF FRANCE 253 


repiesented 18 per cent. of all cases treated in such institutions. In 
Paris the number of abortions is estimated to exceed the number of 
births and fully two thirds of these are said to be provoked. Dr. 
Georges Bertillon estimates that the annual number of such cases is not 
less than 50,000 for all France, and Premier Barthou in the course of 
the discussion during the past summer of a proposed law to restrain 
the practises of the Malthusians asserted that the number of abortions 
was probably as high as 100,000 per year. 

One undoubted reason for the voluntary limitation of the number 
of births is to be found in the small incomes of the laboring classes and 
the petty employés of the state. That a laborer who receives but 80 
cents a day or a letter carrier whose salary is only 200 or 250 dollars a 
year can not rear a family, especially in a city like Paris, however much 
he may desire to do so, is a proposition which is scarcely controvertible. 
Consequently they feel under an economic necessity of limiting the size 
of their families. It is notorious that the number of functionaries in 
France is excessive (nearly one million, or one fortieth of the total pop- 
ulation) and that they are miserably paid, their average salary being 
scarcely more than 500 dollars per year. This explains why the birth- 
rate among them is lower than that of any other class except the rich, 
the average number of children per family being but one and a half. 

Students of the depopulation problem are all agreed that another 
important cause of the voluntary limitation of births is the excessive 
spirit of economy and the passion for saving which prevails among all 
classes in France and especially among peasants, shopkeepers and small 


proprietors. Statistics show that in those communities where the num-/ _ 


ber of certificates of deposit in the savings banks is the largest, the. 
birth-rate is the lowest. very father feels under the necessity of pro- 
viding a dot for his daughter and it is one of his chief ambitions to 
leave an inheritance for his sons. Among the poorer classes this am- 
bition can be realized only when the number of children is limited. 
There is also among the French an extreme reluctance to see their 
fortune divided through the operation of inheritance laws. As the 
existing law does not permit free testamentary disposition, but allows 
e.ch child an equal share of the inheritance, the only way by which the 
father can prevent the division of his estate after his death is to leave 
but a single child to inherit it. The French peasant loves his land 
more than he loves children, and his ideal is, therefore, a single heir 
married to a single heiress. He is willing to have his name disappear 
with his death if his heir is a girl, rather than see his estate divided, 
which must necessarily be the case if he leaves several children. There- 
fore he leaves only one‘ M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, who since the death 
of M. Levasseur is probably the highest authority in France on matters 
relating to population, attributes the low birth-rate to the new demo- 
cratic conception of the family—a view which regards children as a 


254 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 


burden and which desires that the family from one generation to 
another shall rise in the social scale. Every parent desires that his 
children shall occupy a higher social position than he himself did. The 
laborer’s ambition is to see his son a landlord or a functionary; the 
peasant wants his son to be a monsieur, an advocate, a doctor or a mer- 
chant; and the petit bourgeois has similar ambitions. The only means 
of realizing such ambitions is to limit the number of children to whom 
the fortune is to be left. This capilarité sociale—this striving of each 
social molecule to rise higher in the organism—is, he thinks, the prin- 
cipal cause of the infecundity of the French race, at least during recent 
years. 


III. PRoPosED REMEDIES 


Such are the more important causes to which are attributed the de- 
clining population of France. Turning now to a consideration of the 
proposed remedies, we find that they are as various as the causes and are 
hygienic, legislative, administrative, fiscal and social in character. First 
of all, the death-rate, especially among infants, may, and should be, 
reduced to the level attained in other countries of Europe. More than 
one sixth of the children born in France, or between 150,000 and 170,- 
000, die every year, and .of these one third die during the first month 
after birth. This is a “ veritable disaster” to the nation, says the com- 
mission on depopulation, and it should be met by better sanitary meas- 
ures, medical surveillance, more effective inspection of the milk supply 
and gratuitous assistance to the poor. Maternal nourishment should 
be encouraged by every means, in default of which measures should be 
taken to assure a supply of sterilized milk to children who are de- 
pendent upon the dairy for their nourishment... Furthermore, legisla- 
tion should be enacted forbidding the employment of mothers in indus- 
trial establishments at least six weeks before and after accouchement, 
and such establishments should be required to provide places at which 
babies may be nourished by their mothers.1_ By such measures as these 
at least 50,000 children, it is claimed, could be saved for the nation 
every year. 

State aid and initiative in the construction of cheap tenement 
houses for large families, in the cities where rents are high and the cost 
of living excessive, has been advocated by many social reformers. Last 
year the parliament adopted a building code governing the erection of 
such houses, and it contained special provisions in favor of large fam- 
ilies. During the past year a law was also passed providing for public 
assistance for large families and making the expense of such assistance 
obligatory upon the departments, but providing also that the state and 
the communes should share a portion of the cost. The law enacts that 
every head of a family having more than three legitimate children and 


1 Such a law has been enacted since the above was written. 


DECREASING POPULATION OF FRANCE 255 


the resources of which are insufficient for their support shall receive an 
additional grant for every child above the third under thirteen years of 
age. The amount of the allocation is to be determined by the munici- 
pal council subject to the approval of the Council General and the 
Minister of the Interior, but it can not be lower than 60 francs per 
year for each child nor superior to 90 francs. 

More effective measures for combatting tuberculosis, the abolition 
of divorce, legislation permitting the judicial determination of pater- 
nity in the case of illegitimate births and the suppression of convents 
with their 60,000 female celibates are some of the other secondary 
remedies proposed, but it is certain that such measures will not reach 
the real cause of the evil. As I have said, the parliament passed a law 
during the past summer authorizing the judicial determination of il- 
legitimate paternity and its results will be watched with interest. In 
regard to the suppression of convents, M. Bertillon has remarked that 
_ at best it would not result in the addition of more than four or five 
thousand children annually to the population, whereas France needs 
at least 500,000 more births per year. 

The restoration of religious sentiments would, according to many 
students of the problem, result in a new attitude toward the obligation 
to rear families. Among those who share in this view is M. Leroy- 
Beaulieu who, in a recent article in the Journal des Débats, protested 
against the government’s hostile attitude toward the traditional relig- 
ious beliefs of the people. It is necessary, he declared, that our states- 
men should at once abandon the absurd and odious war which they have 
waged for a quarter of a century, and particularly during the last fif- 
teen years, against our country’s traditional religious beliefs. 

The criminal suppression of the methods now being employed by 
the Malthusian propagandists is another proposed remedy. During the 
past year the senate has had under consideration a law for this pur- 
pose and one which proposes to give the correctional tribunals jurisdic- 
tion of cases of abortion, with a view to rendering convictions in such 
cases more certain. Senator Barthou, Premier and Minister of Justice, 
in advocating the adoption of this law in 1912 said: “I am certain that 
the senate will understand that the proposed law is a measure of public 
safety and national salubrity.” There is little doubt that the suppres- 
sion of provoked abortions and of infanticide would have important 
results upon the increase of the population, and it is equally certain 
that the best public sentiment of France demands legislation for this 
purpose, but its enforcement would obviously be attended with great 
practical difficulties. 

Simplification of the formalities of marriage with a. view to en- 
couraging an increase in the number has also been advocated. It may 
be added that by laws passed in 1896 and 1897 a number of the old 
rigorous requirements of the civil code were abolished, notably those 


256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 


relating to age, residence in the commune and consent of parents, and 
the removal of these restrictions was actually followed by a large in- 
crease in the number of marriages (from an average of 281,000 per 
year prior to 1896 to 323,000 since 1907), but there is much complaint 
that the formalities still required and the legal fees exacted are exces- 
sive and constitute a real hindrance to marriage. But, as I have re- 
marked, the number of marriages is already comparatively large in 
France and there has been a wholesome increase from year to year. In 
all probability, therefore, such a remedy would not produce any ap- 
preciable results. , 

The modification of the naturalization laws with a view to facili- 
tating the acquisition of French nationality and thereby encouraging 
immigration has also been advocated as a means of increasing the pop- 
ulation. The existing requirements are too rigid, says M. Leroy-Beau- 
lieu; France, he thinks, could well afford to naturalize 50,000 foreign- 
ers a year since the density of her population is far less than that of 
Germany, Italy and Belgium, and by thus encouraging immigration the 
country would find a new source from which its declining population 
could be recruited. Reform of the inheritance laws so as to allow the 
father a right of free testamentary disposition, as is the rule in other 
countries of Europe, has been widely urged in recent years. The exist- 
ing provisions of the civil code, as I have said, compel the division of 
the inheritance when there is more than one child, and the general re- 
luctance among small proprietors of having their estates split up into 
parcels conduces to the voluntary limitation of their offspring. All 
those who have investigated the question are of the opinion that the 
proposed change would result in a marked increase of the birth rate. 
M. Bertillon goes further and proposes a more heroic remedy, namely, 
the treating of single children in respect to an inheritance as if they 
had brothers and sisters; he would, for example, impose a tax of 30 per 
cent. on the inheritance when there are two children and 60 per cent. 
when there is but one. In other words, where there is but a single 
child he would have the state confiscate that portion of the inheritance 
which would go to the other children if there were any. 

A more reasonable proposal of this kind has been made by Colonel 
Toutee, namely, that the law should regulate the inheritance according 
to the size of the families of the heirs. Thus if two heirs are left, one 
of whom has three children and the other none, the estate should be 
divided into five parts, of which four should go to the first heir and 
one to the second. 

The suggestion has often been made that the state should offer 
bounties for the production of children and numerous bills have been 
introduced into the parliament for this purpose. One of the more 
recent was a proposal by M. Messimy, a former minister of war, pro- 
viding for the payment of a bounty of $100 for every child above the 


DECREASING POPULATION OF FRANCE 257 


fourth. But for fiscal reasons such proposals have not been favorably 
received. A proposed measure which has many advocates is the em- 
ployment of the taxing power for the purpose of chastising celibates 
and the heads of families without children. The rearing of children, 
says M. Bertillon, one of the strongest advocates of the taxation of 
celibacy and infecundity, should be considered as a public duty in the 
same way as service in the army and the payment of taxes. The act of 
rearing a child should be considered as equivalent to the payment of a 
tax ; he who does not discharge this duty should be subject to a sur tax; 
those who do, should be wholly or partially exempted from taxation. 
The statistics show that there are more than 1,500,000 male celibates 
over 25 years of age in France, nearly 2,000,000 families without any 
children at all, nearly 3,000,000 which have but one child each, and 
2,500,000 which have but two each. 

A sur tax on such persons would be to a large extent a tax on the 
rich and well-to-do and it would make possible a reduction of the taxes 
on the comparatively small number of large families which are to be 
found, for the most part, among the poorer classes. 

Fiscal measures whose purpose is to discriminate and to punish 
celibacy and infecundity are, however, objectionable to many persons 
who believe that the better remedy consists in measures of a more 
elevated character addressed to the moral sentiments—measures which 
will tend to reward and honor fecundity and which shall have the 
character of a mark of recognition by the state of its esteem for those 
who have contributed to its strength and perpetuity by the rearing of 
families. Such a measure is the oft-repeated proposal to give the pref- 
erence in the matter of appointments to the lower posts in the public 
service which do not require special qualifications, to the heads of 
families and especially to the heads of families containing more than 
three children. This proposal has been advocated by Messrs. Bertillon, 
Leroy-Beaulieu, Levasseur, Senators Lannelongue, Piot and, many 
- others and has been the subject of numerous bills in parliament. M. 
Leroy-Beaulieu has, I believe, even proposed that no one be appointed a 
functionary who does not have at least three living children. This 
proposal recalls the action of a former prefect of the Seine, M. Poubelle, 
who refused to appoint to certain inferior positions, any man who was 
not the father of at least three children. But this is a rather heroic 
remedy, hardly conducive to administrative efficiency, and would 
scarcely be practicable unless the state should increase the present mis- 
erably low scale of salaries now allowed its employés, many of whom 
find it impossible to support a family of three children out of their 
official incomes. . 

A more moderate proposal is that the state should take account of 
the size of the family in fixing the salaries and retiring pensions of 


258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 


public functionaries. This suggestion has been made by the commis- 
sion on depopulation and by many writers and social reformers. Bills 
embodying this idea have frequently been before parliament, and in 
1908 the Chamber of Deputies adopted a resolution inviting the 
government to introduce a projét for granting to the employés of the 
state receiving small salaries an allocation in proportion to the size of 
their families. Some of the administrative departments have in fact 
already adopted such a policy. Thus in the department of indirect 
taxes, every employé whose salary is less than $440 a year and who has 
three or more children under eighteen years of age receives a subsidy of 
$12 a year. Likewise in the post-office department and in the customs 
service there is a similar grant of $9.00 per year. Somewhat similar 
allowances are made by the state railroads and other branches of the 
public service. Thus the principle has already been given an extended 
application, though on a somewhat small scale. Not very different in 
principle and without the objections which characterize punitive taxa- 
tion of celibacy and infecundity is the proposal advocated by M. Leroy- 
Beaulieu and others to take into account the size of the family in fixing 
the amount of the personal tax, which, in France, is mainly a tax on 
habitation and one which therefore weighs heavily upon renters having 
large families. This principle has been embodied in the tax systems of 
various continental states, notably in the German income tax law which 
allows a reduction of $12.50 in the amount of the tax for every child 
under fourteen years of age. The abolition of the tax on doors and 
windows, letters patent, the octrot and others of a similar character 
which are peculiarly burdensome to the poor would be, as has often 
been asserted, conducive to the rearing of larger families. 


IV. CoNCLUSIONS 


Such are some of the means that have been proposed for combatting 
the conditions which threaten France with depopulation. Some of 
them, like discriminating measures against celibates, the payment of 
bounties for the production of children, the exemption of heads of 
families from certain public impositions, and the partial confiscation of 
inheritances where there is but a single child, were tried by the 
Romans, but they were largely illusory and of little effect. Of the 
other measures proposed, some are impracticable, others are impossible 
of execution and still others would be productive of but slight results. 
The true remedy lies not in legislative, administrative or fiscal meas- 
ures, though some of these may contribute toward the checking of the 
evil, but in a reform of the morals and customs of the French people. 
There must be a fundamental change in the attitude of French men and 
women toward the obligation to rear families; there must be an awaken- 
ing to the duty which devolves upon the citizen to contribute to the 


DECREASING POPULATION OF FRANCE 259 


perpetuity of his race through the rearing of children as to defend it in 
time of war or to pay taxes for the maintenance of government. Any 
and all measures which shall contribute toward an awakening of the 
people to the importance of this national duty are worthy of encourage- _ 
ment and of adoption. The solution of the problem is not dependent 
upon external measures and remedies; it is to be found almost entirely 
in the moral sentiments and social customs of the people themselves. 5 
Zola did not exaggerate when he said: “ France will never be depopu-"\ 
lated unless she wishes to be.” The late Emile Levasseur once remarked” 
that it was “truly humiliating to think of a nation of thirty-eight 
million souls, which by its age, its industry and commerce is one of 
the wealthiest of the globe and which by its intellectual activity, its arts 
and its sciences is one of the most capable of enlightening the world 
and which under republican government has during the last quarter of 

a century recovered in the Huropean concert the place of a great power, 
is a nation which, according to the statistics is destined to disappear.” 
Mr. Roosevelt’s warning at the Sorbonne in 190% that “neither luxury, 
nor material progress, nor the accumulation of wealth, nor the seduc- 
tions of literature and of art, should take the place of those fundamental 
virtues the greatest of which is that which assures the future of the 
race” made a deep impression at the time it was delivered and has not 
been entirely without result. It is no exaggeration to say that at no | 
time in the past have so many thoughtful Frenchmen been aroused to 
a realization of the consequences that must inevitably result from the 
continued decline of the population. This is fully attested by the 
organization of societies to increase the population, by the formation 
of parliamentary groups with the same end in view, by the appointment 
of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary commissions to study the 
question and to search for the remedies, by legislative and administra- 
tive measures of various kinds and by the discussions and publications 
of scientific bodies and of economists, sociologists and publicists. No 
one can read the extensive literature to which the discussion of the 
problem has given rise without feeling that the question is now regarded 
as a serious and pressing one and that the nation proposes to grapple 
with it as such. 


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